St. Cloud State had 20-shot advantage but needed to fight off a 6-on-4 power play late in the game to hold on for a 4-2 exhibition win over the Toronto Jr. Aeros at the National Hockey Center on Sunday.
The Huskies had 32 shots attempts in the opening 20 minutes, 18 of which were on goal, but could only muster a Randie Jelinski goal at the 12 minute, 20 second mark of the period, which Caitlyn Ruddy answered three minutes later.
“I was happy with our effort in the first period,” said St. Cloud State coach Jason Lesteberg, coaching his first game for the Huskies after being hired in the offseason. “We just didn’t put the puck in the net. I don’t think our players expected the pace of the game to be what it was and it set them back a little.”
The Aeros had 11 shots on goal in the opening period and got solid goaltending from Lauri St. Jacques. However, Rosanne Stang score at 5:25 of the second period to give SCSU the lead for good and Tina Ciraulo’s power-play goal less than three minutes later gave the Huskies breathing room.
Despite a late second-period goal by Toronoto’s Angela DiStasi, St. Cloud State never seemed to be in serious danger of losing the lead and, when Carrie Haldorf scored at 3:42 of the final period, the Huskies had the two-goal cushion again.
SCSU held a 44-24 advantage in shots on goal. Laura Gieselman made 11 saves in the first period, Ellen Brinkman six in the second and Brie Anderson five in third for the Huskies. Lauri St. Jacques stopped 18 of 21 shots in 32 minutes of play while Laura Hosier had 22 saves while allowing just one goal in relief.
“Overall, it was sloppy,” Lesteberg said. “But we haven’t worked on everything we’d like to yet. We’ve worked on a lot of individual stuff lately so I wasn’t overly concerned about the score. I was more concerned our execution and our effort.”
St. Cloud State opens its regular-season schedule Oct. 12-13 with home games against Bemidji State in both teams’ WCHA opener.
